The beautiful women, the cheating guy and the Domi
by sidlewillows
Summary: Let’s say I filled the blanks on the main story of penultimate chapter of seventh season. You will read the dialogues form the episode, plus what the characters were really thinking, plus some lines that were not there, plus a Cath & Sara central plot...
1. The Woman in the Picture

Here she is, in his bed while he works on his miniature scene. Sometimes she wonders why they are still together. Well, not sometimes, lately she asks herself that question almost all the time. Sara has never been really in love with Grissom. It was an obsession, a hard to achieve goal she settled to herself as a sort of distraction. The point is that now, once the target was reached and the distraction is gone, nothing has changed. But let's better not go there. Look at them now, together at home and still apart. Come on... Friday night, and Grissom is working on his mock-up while she is watching a retro movie? It's not necessary to be a genius to figure out that something isn't going well there. Sara isn't oblivious of that. She has never before been involved in a love relationship and still felt herself released when the circumstances leaded in a direction opposite from sex. She doesn't want Grissom anymore, and maybe she never wanted him at all. She looks to the table where the man devotes whole attention to his handiwork, and wonders if Gil has sometime put half of this concentration on her. When her cell phone rings, she's inner answering herself that certainly not.

-Hi, Sara. It's me, Lindsey. -Hey. It's nice to hear your voice, baby.

Sara raises her eyes in Grissom's direction. Apparently, the man doesn't care if she's happy to hear someone else's voice. He didn't listen her, or he pretends he didn't.

-Are you busy now?

-Not at all, why?

-Well, I called to your place, and you weren't there, so I figured maybe you were, you know... out with some handsome date?

-Yeah, well. I'm not. -Ok. I don't want to intrude.

-Hope you remember you can call me whenever you want, I told you so. It's everything ok?

Now he glances at her for a second, and Sara thinks that maybe she was wrong, that perhaps the sparkle hasn't faded at all... She'll fight for this... well, for whatever it is.

-Yes. Listen, I called because I wanted to ask you a favour.  
-Well, Spill it out. You are not in trouble, are you?

-No. Hey, it's mom birthday. And I'd like to give her something special this year.

-And where do I fit in this plan of yours?

-Your leading roll starts in the part where you help me to digitalize and make some screen captures from an old tape I have, where mom is holding me when I was a little baby. I'd ask Greg, but he can't keep his mouth shout, and I want this to be a surprise for mom.

-You can count with me on that digitalizing stuff. And regarding to the top-secret part, well I barely speak with Catherine, so she certainly would never know about it from me.

-Thanks, Sara! I owe you. Maybe I could give you the tape tomorrow in the crime lab?

-Sure.

-Great! You know I love you, don't you?

-Yeah, well... I love you too, but keep it quiet...

-Right...And that tough pose of yours, it's just bullshit...

-That's just because I'm kind of soft on you, kiddo.

-See? So cute... Well, see you tomorrow, Sara.

-Tomorrow, then.

She hangs up, looking at Grissom and sighing as the man keeps focused on the miniature scene.

-It was Lindsey. She wanted my help to surprise Catherine with a birthday present.

-Ok.

-So... Aren't you going to get in bed? It's late.

-Nah, it's fine. You sleep, I'll continue on this for a while.

She doesn't answer immediately. She promised herself she'll fight for this, and is resolute about it. Granted, maybe is not love anymore, but Grissom is safety, security, a sort of comfy shelter to rest for a while. And she's so tired of being tough... If you had a past like Sara's, maybe you'll understand the deep reasons of this conformist decision... Besides, Grissom is loyal and that's one of his best features: she can trust him. To surrender on passion is a high price for safety, but... As she drops a book, which is on his bedside table, a picture falls on the floor and her inner rambling suddenly stops. One more time, she glances at him, and one more time he's oblivious of his surroundings. Sara picks up the picture and looks at it. It's an old photograph of a woman. A beautiful woman she's never seen before... But why was it hidden inside of that book?

TBC... 


	2. Costumes? Maybe

-So, here is the tape. As I told you, besides the first part with mom and me, I don't know what's on it. I had to steal it from her room, and I didn't have time to watch it complete. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the first minutes are enough for capturing the images... 

Sara looks at the grown up girl as she speaks, remembering Cath's worries about raising a teenager in Vegas and assessing her coworker's well rewarded efforts. Lindsey is right following her mom's tracks. She's smart, strong mind, stubborn, definitely aware of her appealing and... let's better drop the praising Catherine through her daughter issue...

-Sara, are you actually listen what I'm saying?

-Yes, sure. Sorry I was kind of lost in thoughts...But I was listening you. I'll see those first minutes and do my best. Don'tworry...By the way, isn't Cath around? She could see you.

-Nah, Greg told me Mom's on the field. Oh, I'd forgotten, he also said he had to help the dayshift and apparently Grissom wanted you to go to the crime scene where mom is...

-Well, I'd better be going then. Don't wanna find a Catherine infuriated about my delay...

Lindsey smiles as Sara kisses her cheek and runs through the corridor as if some fire depended on her arrival to be extinguish...

**:::: Half an hour later, at the crime scene ::::**

-This is a family theme park. I'm assuming they don't actually serve alcohol here. Must have brought their own. Single malt, 12 years old.

-S & M is a rich man's sport. Kind of like hockey. A lot of equipment.

-How much do you think a night like this would cost?

-Heather told me, five years ago, she was clearing 20 grand a week. And that was before suspects that Lady Heather might be the woman of the picture. That would explain many things...

-What is she like?

-Beautiful... smart, intense... charming.

A chill goes through Sara's spine, but she tells to herself that it has nothing to do with Catherine's sultry tone of voice or the slight possibility that those words were about┘ someone else.

-The only woman I've ever seen rattle Grissom. I mean, he kind of liked that forensic anthropologist, Terry Miller. Remember her?

-Yeah.

Yes. She remembers. But neither Terry is the one in the photograph... It must be someone else. She feels like she is missing something... An awful feeling for a CSI.

-But she wasn't enough of a challenge for him. Heather, on the other hand... uninhibited and can beat him at mental chess. They had chemistry. And he is a scientist. I have no proof and I know he'd never tell me, but I'm certain they spent the night together... Wonder which one wore the chaps.

Chaps? Grissom? What's Catherine talking about? Right: chemistry. Well that's a lacking in her life, plus the passion item...And... who knows... perhaps plus the chaps...? She tries to answer...

-Lots of...

Blame the abstinence...But suddenly Sara can only think she'd definitely like to have chemistry with someone... Someone who could push her buttons, rattle her, like Catherine... like Catherine said, period. She clears her throat and continues

-...coins and toothpicks. They don't sweep under here.

Absent minded... Cath goes on with the rambling...

-I mean, more power to him, really, to find somebody outside of work'cause you start fishing from the company pier, and... asking for trouble.

Catherine knows very well what she's talking about. Even if she hasn't fished from the CSI pier, long time ago she did something like that when dancing on the strip club. But that's all past now...

-I got a shot glass. Looks like there's some lipstick around the rim.

She looks at Sara and feels a wave of remembrance. In a way, in a dark lurking way, she reminds her of... But let's better drop that... Dazed by the obvious resemblance she's subconsciously noticing, what should have been an inner rambling ends up as an aloud statement... plus an unusual question...

-My fantasy does not include costumes, or pain... and certainly not sawdust. You?

Sara contemplates the question for a moment and makes a pause.

-Well, let me think... I agree about the not pain, nor sawdust... But costumes?... Maybe. I mean, on the right circumstances, with the right person... Don't you think? And I'm definitely not forward a cowboy outfit...

She isn't even sure why she answered that. Maybe, for a second, she just wanted to fluster the blonde. But Catherine knows Sara is faking it cool, so she immediately raises the bet.

-Yeah, well, blame my former profession, but I think for me it has always been more about the who-with than about the undressing-up stuff. Costumes are fun, granted, but, as a fantasy, I see it as a much more achievable thing than the who-with part... For me, at least...

Satisfied with herself, and with Sara's dropped jaw, Catherine blinks and opens her cell phone to inform Grissom about the situation...


End file.
